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Council Policies

Council Policies are published in the Adobe Reader format. You will need to install the Adobe Reader program on your computer in order to read the policies. If you do not already have the Adobe Reader installed you can download it from the Adobe website.

To find out more about Council Policies you can contact Wairoa District Council here.

Individual Wairoa District Council Policies are available for download below.

This Policy is made for the purposes of 65D of the Racing Act 2003. This policy has been developed to enable the Council to consider and determine consent applications. As required by the Act, all decisions by Council to grant or decline consent must be made in accordance with this policy.

The Objective of the policy is to determine the appropriate funding sources to fund activities, and to provide certainty over the levels of funding. Funding sources for operating expenses and capital expenditure are to comply with applicable legislation and generally accepted accounting practice.

The purpose of this policy is to provide a practical framework for the care and control of dogs throughout the Wairoa District in order to minimise any danger, distress or nuisance caused by dogs to the community in general.

Under s 106 of the Local Government Act 2002, Councils have wide powers to raise revenues from property developers, which are termed as financial contributions. The Council is required to identify projects from which capital contributions may be collected. To date the Council has not carried out this project identification work but is planning to do so.

Under section 101(1) a local authority must manage its revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities, investments and general financial dealings prudently and in a manner that promotes the current and future interests of the community.

Council's philosophy in the management of investments is to optimise returns in the long term while balancing risk and return considerations. Council recognises that as a responsible public authority any investments that it does hold should be low risk. It also recognises that lower risk generally means lower returns.

In order to allow rate relief where it is considered fair and reasonable to do so, Council is required to adopt policies specifying the circumstances under which rates will be considered for remission.

This policy has been formulated for the purposes of ensuring the fair and equitable collection of rates from all sectors of the community by recognising that certain Maori owned lands have particular conditions features, ownership structures, or other

circumstances that make it appropriate to provide relief from rates and meeting the requirements of Sections 102 and 108 and the matters in Schedule 11 of the Local Government Act 2002 to have a policy on the remission and postponement of rates on Maori freehold land

All decisions the Wairoa District Council makes must be made in accordance with the decision-making requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 (set out in sections 76-81). Council must make judgments about the appropriate level of compliance with those requirements, largely in proportion to the 'significance' of the matters affected by the decision (section 79 of the Act).

The objectives of this Policy are to establish a general approach and process for identifying the significance of Council decisions; and to set out when and how Council will engage with the community in decision-making, depending on the significance of the decision.

Wairoa District Council is committed to being accessible and responsive to all complainants who approach our office for assistance and/or with a complaint. When complainants behave unreasonably in their dealings with the Council, their conduct can significantly affect our success. As a result, WDC will take proactive and decisive action to manage any complainant conduct that negatively and unreasonably affects us and will support our staff to do the same in accordance with this policy. In order to take an approach that is consistent with government agencies best practice and New Zealand law, the Wairoa District Council has adopted the practice manual 'Managing Unreasonable Complainant Conduct - A manual for frontline staff, supervisors and senior managers', October 2012, Office of the Ombudsman.

The policy works on the principle of the recognition of occasions when it would be unfair and/or unreasonable to collect rates from owners of Maori land due to varying circumstances resulting from the unique form of ownership of Maori land.